The War That Made America Summary

How were national and personal identities formed during the 18th and 19th centuries?

In Fred Anderson’s monograph, The War that Made America, he writes about the course of the French and Indian War, and how it shaped the colonists’ views about England. As the war progressed, the colonists began to realize what it meant to be British, and they also began to distance themselves from the British. Colonists began to create their own identity when they disagreed with British policies, and this conflict of ideologies later led to the creation of the United States. In Soul by Soul, Walter Johnson describes how slave-owners and slaves created their own identities based off of each other. Johnson describes how slave-owners depended on their slaves

Life in the South before the Civil War was completely dependent on slaves. White men could only move into a higher class by purchasing more slaves. The more slaves a man owned meant that he was responsible for more people. White men identified themselves through how much authority they had over their wives, children, and slaves. With more slaves, there were more people dependent on the white man, so he had more authority over more people. White men were defined by how many people relied on him and how much authority he had. White slave-owners were also defined by how they treated their slaves. Some slave-owners acted paternalistic towards their slaves, and helped to unite slaves’ families. Slave-owners did this so that their slaves would like them and fulfill their fantasy of a happy slave who loved his owner. Some masters felt like the only way they could be a good owner was through treating their slaves well. However, some slave-owners took pride in breaking their slaves in order to make their slaves completely dependent upon their master. Slave-owners wanted to be completely powerful over their slaves, and often this meant destroying their slaves’ values. If a master had total control over slaves, that meant he was a good master. Slave-owners built their identity with how much authority they had over their

In both monographs, a separate entity is responsible for shaping a person’s identity. In The War that Made America, the colonists’ conflicting ideologies with the British led them to create a new American identity based off of being different from the British. In Soul by Soul, slave-owners created their own identity from their dominance over their slaves, and slaves created their identity through their responses to enslavement. Both of these monographs demonstrate how an outside source, no matter what it is, can shape a person’s identity. Through these books, the audience learns that their identity is separate from themselves. How a person reacts to a situation, whether it be a war, taxes, or slavery, determines their identity. In the 18th century, colonists created a national identity through their responses to British demands. In the 19th century, slave-owners and slaves produced a personal identity based off of their dependence on one another; slave-owners depended on dominance over slaves, and slaves depended on their agency in face of slavery. In times before the American Revolution to the Civil War, people were united by the fact that they depended on an outside source to determine their uniqueness and their